Company’s new play to make its debut

A theatre group is staging a new play set in the modern-day London of get-rich-quick millionaires.

Cullercoats-based Cloud Nine will be bringing its new production of The Dirty Flea-Bitten Scrounging Bastard to the Surf Cafe, Tynemouth, on Monday, October 16, followed by three nights at The Exchange, North Shields, from October 19.

Written by artistic director Peter Mortimer and directed by Neil Armstrong, it is a fast-paced comic satire.

It tells the story of two young property developers celebrating a new killing in the market with their wives, who have their dinner party interrupted by the unexpected arrival of a down-and-out.

The unwelcome visitor is rapidly despatched, but makes a habit of returning. It seems he simply won’t go away – with consequences as unexpected as they are dramatic.

Cloud Nine produces only new work from northern writers.

It was recently awarded grants from Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund towards a play next year on the life of the North Shields painter Victor Noble Rainbird.

Tickets for its latest play are £8 from the venues, Surf Café on 0191 447 1503, or The Exchange on 0191 258 4111.